Intro

[AA87]

Hello Marines, Recruits, Poolees, and Wannabes,

The name's Aaron, and I fall into the last category. I'm a 23 year old male from Illinois. I'm from Hillsboro(if any of you die hard UFC fans know of Matt Hughes, he lived down the street from me), but I claim Chicago as my home, and currently reside in the capitol of Springfield. My entire life I've had a love of the military, my country, warfare, firearms, and all forms of combat. Memorial Day has always been one of my favorite holidays.

It all started probably some time when I was young as my grandfather would regale me with stories of his time in the 7th Army Division, Artillery Battery B shelling the Japs in WW2 in the Pacific.

I studied Theatre at Southern Illinois University and dropped out in the middle of my junior year to move to the city and pursue a career in acting, voice-overs, and stand-up.

A few months ago, my father suffered a stroke, and I have since returned home to take care of him. With a recent addiction to the Military Channel, some helpful guidance of an 0311 Sgt. friend of mine, and the patriotism I've retained my entire life, I have made the decision to enlist as soon as I am able. I love my country dearly, and would be proud to serve in her defense. I chose the Marines as I consider them the best branch of service. In training and military structure, I do not believe that any other arm of America's defense compares. I fervently work towards the day when I can step into those yellow footprints like so many before me.

I've been a fat-bodied civilian for most of my life, but easily lost over 70 pounds once I put my mind to it in college. Sadly, a combination of stress from my father's condition, general laziness and abstaining from my previously rigorous workouts, and grandma's home cookin' have reinstated me to fat-body status. I am currently working on re-losing the weight to come within Marine standards, and enlist at my earliest opportunity.

I extend my thanks for the privilege to post here with you who have already earned, and made steps to earn, the title of United States Marine.

[temarti]

Stay focused and good luck on your goal!

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Marines being natural 'hams' for the most part....what have you been in? Anything cool? What voices do you do?

Anyway....keep striving for your goal. Do some thread searching here and you'll find information and assistance on losing that weight and finding your dream.

[AA87]

I did a number of original plays in college, one where I played the Satanic shock rocker who "murdered" Kurt Cobain. I've done some musicals, too, such as "Chicago" and "The Producers". As far as voice-overs, it's mainly been small radio commercial and television broadcasting work(I.E. "And stick around for more Antiques Roadshow at 7:30!").

I may do a pilot for Cartoon Network soon. A friend of mine in Atlanta has been working on a script for a long time and recently met Ted Turner and his family at an event, so that'd be awesome if it got greenlit.

Thanks for the encouragement! I figure if I could do it 3 years ago for the general purpose of getting laid more often, it ought to be much easier with a little more wisdom and the goal of earning the title.

I still need to speak with a recruiter. Apparently, the one closest to my location is no longer there, and the second closest is a 45 minute drive. I'd like to pursue a combat MOS, specifically an 1800 Armor or 0300 Infantry. My friend in the 0300 has advised against 1800. He says they're usually working from 5am to 10pm just fixing guns.

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Cool. Well, for sure keep us up to date on the 'biz', so to speak LOL.

Regarding the recruiter, you might have to suck it up and drive. Going in person is really the best way. Email and phone are just too easy to ignore, and the 'serious' folks show up.

Consider LAV crewman. It's still 'armor', 'combat arms', but likely not near as much in the way of 'fixing the beast'. Plus more chances for deployment, if that's what you want.

[tdrt]

Good Luck and let nothing get in the way of you achieving your dream and goals. Keep your eyes on the prize (and I don't mean the getting laid part! LOL)

[AA87]

MOS 0313 - - LAV Crewman definitely looks appealing. Although I read this;

(6) Must possess the psychological and physiological qualifications required for licensing as a Government motor vehicle operator; see MCO 11240.66 and TM 11240- 15/3.

(7) Must have a past driving record appropriate for issue of SF-46 (Military driver's license) as evidenced by a search of the National Driver Register.

Does this mean you need to have a crystal clear driving record?

[Sgt Leprechaun]

No, not generally. Unless you've got like 3 DUI and a bunch of suspensions and other tickets....

And quite frankly, I have no idea what the 'National Driver Register' even IS. My guess is they just run your license.

[AA87]

Nothing more than the general speeding violations I imagine most civvies have earned. ;)

I found a pretty cool video of tank school on YouTube if anyone is interested to view it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-uk-11qFRk

Still looking for that Discovery Channel special on tanker training, but from what I've read, they usually work on them more than drive or shoot them.

I just found a recruiter nearby, and plan to get in touch with him soon and enter DEP. Hopefully there are some other fat bodies in need of running partners!

[Sgt Leprechaun]

Outstanding. Keep us in the loop.

[indygti]

I put 0313 #1 on my wishlist in infantry school, followed by 0351, and didn't get it, and I had some pretty killer scores as far as PT and testing goes, but whatever. They only select a few out of an entire company in infantry school so don't get your hopes up on that particular MOS. Besides, you never know what you might enjoy most in infantry school until you get there and experiment with different weapon systems. I enjoyed blowing stuff up more than shooting rifles or machine guns, so Assaultman was what I leaned towards. Although firing those machine guns was pretty awesome.

Either way, if you're seriously considering infantry work on your endurance and hiking, especially up extremely big hills, which if you'll see too much of at Camp Pendleton.

Good luck with your future endeavors though!

[AA87]

I just read a description for Assaultman and I have to say, 0351 would be awesome. I can totally sympathize with your desire to blow **** up!

I guess I read the MOS earlier and figured that an Assaultman wouldn't see much action as I can't imagine an Iraqi insurgency having too many tanks, but shoulder-fired bunker busters? Hell yes.

[AA87]

Just spoke to my local recruiter and luckily, I won't be needing to drop as many pounds as I thought.

I spoke to the recruiter there who will be retiring in September, who then transferred me over to the Sgt. who will be replacing him. He told me that my max weight would be 228, although the Sgt. told me that my max is 241. 241 sounds pretty high, but both numbers are better than the 208 I was thinking I'd have to drop to.

Either way, I'll be keeping in touch with him weekly for updates on my progress.

As for now, it's runnin' time.

[AA87]

Since my last post, I've dropped 15 pounds. I've been keeping my recruiter, Sgt. Hernandez, in the loop every week and he's been a great encouragement. I can't wait until I hit my goal, become a poolee, and can start some even more rigorous training.

[Lisa 23]

Keep up the good job with your weight loss! :thumbup:


Males

Height----Weight Max----Weight Min
58"------------- 132 -------------- 91
59"------------- 136 -------------- 94
60"------------- 141 -------------- 97
61"------------- 146 --------------100
62"------------- 150 --------------104
63"------------- 155 --------------107
64"------------- 160 --------------110
65"------------- 165 --------------114
66"------------- 170 --------------117
67"------------- 176 --------------121
68"------------- 181 --------------125
69"------------- 186 --------------128
70"------------- 192 --------------132
71"------------- 197 --------------136
72"------------- 203 --------------140
73"------------- 208 --------------144
74"------------- 214 --------------148
75"------------- 220 --------------152
76"------------- 226 --------------156
77"------------- 232 --------------160
78"------------- 238 --------------164
79"------------- 244 --------------168
80"------------- 250 --------------173

http://www.marine-pt.com/maleheightandweight.html

[AA87]

I read that when I first got interested, WMarine, which is why I'm confused at to why my recruiter would say that I just need to get down to 241 for my height of 73 inches.